Clubbing it! Late Roman and Late Sassanid Shenanigans and Rebased Franks

Rebasing Franks..... ooh, I love me a bitm of rebasing!!! Not!!! It's so, so frustrating!

The last couple of L:ate Roman vs Sassanid games at the club. And, Matt showing his GW 40K minis! (He's going to kill me for this!)

Cheers

Late Roman, Equites Scholae, Heavy Cavalry

Ironically, due to a gamut of other stuff cropping up, and considering this was a "speed painted" project/unit; this set of 12 highly trained Equites Scholae have certainly taken their time to hit the wargames table. They did so last night and actually survived. an unusual event for a freshly finished unit.

Six of the horses were painted with the sponge method and the other six with a flat matt black basecoat, medium grey drybrush and then a careful even coat of contrast paint. It is now clear to me that the (amazingly rapid) sponge method is both superior in the overall visual appeal and time taken. This, at least for my Late Roman army cavalry wing, will be my chosen method from now on. I'm not going to go back and paint up another 6 horses with the sponge method despite the unit looking a bit odd with both types of speed painted horses included! I will have to live with it.

Anyway, please enjoy the rest of the pictures. There will certainly be much more to come, hopefully soon, for the Late Roman army!

Cheers

First Six Late Roman Equites Scholae Palatinae

A while ago I came to a decision regarding army painting where I planned Ito speed paint two armies for every one that I took my time over. Some may think me sprightly at 58 but I'm beginning to "feel it" in terms of how much can I paint in my life what can actually be used useful on the wargames table? The trick being able to paint fast enough as to get units ship shape and battle ready on the table at pace, but not to lose too much by way of quality.

Basically my methodology for painting horses as fast as possible has come to this.

1/ A black undercoat over a black primer. Then a medium grey drybrush, then contrast paint, Goregrunta Fur (lol) and for variation, Wyldwood (lol). Both gave a (sort of) oil wiped look to the horses but were perhaps more subtle. I should add, the contrast paint was painted on, but unlike like a wash, rather as an even covering all over the horses. The first time I tried the method was on some plastic Elven Steeds, which gave a very good even subtle finish after just one coat (see below).

The Black Undercoat, Neutral Grey Drybrush, Contrast Paint Method: Plastic Elven Steed

The next step was to try the same technique on a metal horse. unfortunately, the results were not the same as metal castings always have some "pitting" due to the manufacturing process and this showed on the horses. 

For contrast, the Black Undercoat, Neutral Grey Drybrush, Contrast Paint Method:

2/ I was essentially back to square one (I did keep the horses for the second rank of the Equites Scholae Palatinae very much in keeping with painting up the army as fast as possible). I then, quite by accident, heard via a chap on a Facebook forum about the makeup sponge technique for horses. I was (very) unfamiliar with this concept so did a little digging and with the help (and support!) of one of my Facebook friends, Nigel Higgins, I gave it a go with quite astonishing results! 

I will put together a tutorial at some stage as if you are willing to cope with the drop in quality, this is going to save a lot of wargamers a lot of time! They are far from perfect but do look like they have been layered up; good enough for me!

Makeup Sponge Method

So, after waffling on for a good while, without further ado, the unit of Equites Scholae Palatinae for my Late Roman army.

Equites Scholae Palatinae:

Cheers

Late Roman Legion and Archers!

I finally finished the last eight speed painted Late Roman Archers to go with the first Legionary unit of my LR army! I say finally as they really do seem to have taken forever due to varnishing issues and the weather (I do a Humbrol Enamel Gloss coat before matting down so it can take time which is weather and humidity dependent).

These eight fellows were originally going to be painted a few years ago, prior to the Vanishing Disaster Incident, which put me off painting the army completely. That is, until this year and the beginning of Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

As the Archers are integral to the whole unit of Legionaries I've included a piccie or two of the lot to give you guys and gals an idea of how the miniatures work together.